New Carlisle

What is now New Carlisle was first established as “York” in 1810; the name was later changed in New Carlisle in 1828. Today, it is a city of about 5,800 people. Located at the intersection of State Routes 235 and 571, New Carlisle is well-connected to larger, nearby cities such as Dayton and Springfield, but still maintains the charm of a small town.

One of the city’s “claims to fame” is that John Dillinger committed his first bank robbery at the New Carlisle National Bank (southeast corner of Main & Jefferson Streets), where he stole $10,000 on June 10, 1933 June 21, 1933* (thanks to commenter Scott for bringing the error to our attention!). Photos of that bank building, as well as many other buildings and scenes in the city, can be seen in the gallery below.

* Many online sources, including Wikipedia and the New Carlisle Chamber of Commerce web site, have incorrectly stated that the date of Dillinger’s bank robbery in New Carlisle was June 10, 1933.  This error has apparently stemmed from secondary sources. However, the correct date of the robbery is definitively June 21, 1933. This has been confirmed using original primary sources, including the Dayton Daily News (June 21, 1933, pages 1 & 5 – view PDF), as well as Springfield newspapers (thanks to our friends at the Heritage Center of Clark County for their help with this). As you can see from the image of the Dayton Daily News front page on June 21, 1933 (view PDF), this robbery was front-page news. There was no robbery reported in the Dayton Daily News on either June 10 or June 11, 1933, on the front pages (view PDF) or anywhere else. Also, we have now corrected the Wikipedia article. (This paragraph added January 31, 2014.)